Travis County Commissioners Court
November 18, 2008
Item 7
Number 7, consider and take appropriate action regarding the potential contract with the Texas association of counties for a collaboration with Travis County media services for the production and repurposing of county-related videos.
>> good morning judge, Commissioner, steven bolbert, director of communication resources. I'd like to mention three short items before we get into the contract. I think the nation was not entirely surprised this week to hear that our president-elect would continue his weekly addresses. The surprise was that they are now on you tube live. Secondly, it was just yesterday that someone sent me a link to a you tube item that was a recruitment video for the Travis County sheriff's office. It's out there on you tube right now. What -- and they said, well, what is this? Well, what it was was something we at tctv, Travis County television produced. It didn't go on to you tube with our knowledge or even with our credits, we're going to try to fix that, but nevertheless, it shows the power of that and now we can recruit nationwide without lifting a finger. Third, I want to you know that my mother is here with us today. But she's not in the room. She's 76 years old. She's retired. She lives in minnesota and she's watching us live right now on traviscountytv org. To be honest, she's not watching because of this item, she's watching because I'm here and I know you will forgive me if she sends you e-mails if the decision on this goes a particular way. I bring these items up to illustrate and further convince anybody who is not convinced now that internet delivery of video is not a future technology. It's here right now. And I think you heard during our budgets sessions the number of hits we're getting for Commissioners court. It's used daily by all of us or many, most of us, and it's here to say. With that said, enter jim lewis, sitting beside me. He is the communications director for the Texas association of counties. Jim's long been familiar with our work at tctv and I dare say he's been a fan. He took one look at our recent submission to the tac awards, a video entitled "you're even titled" and he said how can we get this to every resident in Texas. Not just in Travis County where this was produced in collaboration with tctv and the tax office, this is something that everybody should see. So after some discussion, it became clear that with just a few changes to this video, that there are might be possible. And if you would allow, I would like for media to play a test that we did. You all go ahead, please. We ran a test and we repurposed one episode of tax talk. This is a video situation that we produced with tctv and the tax office. You all go ahead, please.
>> come on, y'all. __
>> disabled persons may applied for disabled vehicle complaints and placards. These enable the person to walk closer for easier access to public places. Let's take a look at what you need to know to apply. First, let's take a closer look at the plates. These plates clearly show the international symbol for disabled access in the center of the plate. Consistent with Texas law that all license plates be mounted in both the front and rear of the vehicle, the disabled person plates are mounted likewise. Disabled persons may also use a placard mounted on their review mirror. Blue placards indicated permanent disability while red indicate temporary disability. With either the plates or the placard properly mounted insenior citizen I believe, you may park in spots designated for disabled parking. You can obtain the correct form by contacting the office of your local tax assessor-collector, check the blue pages phone book or go to your county's website. Please note on the back of the form there are explanations regarding the requirements for disabled parking. The top of the form is for you to complete. The bottom of the form must be completed and signed by your doctor. He or she must also have that signature notarized. As an alternative to notarized signature, your doctor may complete a prescription stating the degree of mobility or impairment and whether that is temporary or permanent. The cost for disabled plates is $1.30 in addition to the regular vehicle registration fee. Disabled placards are going for four years. When it's time to renew a permanent blue placard, you simply meet an application without the need for a doctor's signature or a prescription. When you have completed your application, you may bring the form or mail it to the tax office. So now we know about the process of applying for disabled plates and placards. That's it for this edition of tak talk. See you next time.
>> this, again, was just a test. There may be further changes. And -- but this is in our estimation, this is one of those rare instances where we have a win, a win and a win. The residents of Travis County win with this because we have the opportunity to produce many, many more of these with the help of the Texas association of counties. Our producers, our media producers win not only do they have an opportunity to do a little contract work and get paid directly by tac and not Travis County, not on Travis County time, but on their own time, and get a little more of their sterling reputations forwarded statewide. Tac wins because their constituency is -- is benefited and they are able to use their wide network of resources to get these videos in other residents' hands. So with all of that said, jim lewis is here. Y'all have the contract in front of you. If you have any questions or comments, we would be more than willing to answer questions.
>> I have a question.
>> yes, ma'am.
>> just -- and this may seem, you know, money grubbing, but what is -- what is the financial benefit to Travis County?
>> well, the financial benefit is as follows: these are videos that we would produce, but we would use our own producers' time using Travis County general fund moneys to pay them. We no longer --
>> it frees up time of our producers because it's done as a private contractor, but utilizing our facilities, correct?
>> it utilizes our facilities and some components of our equipment. But not components that we would be using concurrently.
>> will it mean that we have to hire more people?
>> no, ma'am. These would be the same -- these people would be doing this evenings and Saturdays. That's the plan.
>> so we have a way to ensure that this work is not done on county time.
>> oh, yes, sir, we're very scrupulous about that.
>> and the lawyers have looked at it and concluded there is enough I guess public purpose here to authorize the use of county equipment?
>> we have, sir.
>> to produce these.
>> we're comfortable with it.
>> that was john hilly assuring the court that legally this is all right. Questions?
>> second.
>> move approval.
>> seconded by Commissioner Gomez. Any more discussion? You've been eloquent so far thanks. I will point out that what your association is planning to do, in addition to working and developing the scripts, is that we are -- we have -- we currently sponsor 171 county websites and some of the smaller counties, we can get those pretty quickly linked directly to these videos. And we also are planning -- a marketing plan for the general public throughout the state and tell them this is how you get your county services. Anybody that's been in county government long realizes that get in a conversation and the people say the real issue is people don't know what counties do. And we have for years had videos, brochures, we promote best practices, but when you get to civics kind of lessons, people don't really have a lot of interest. They are much more concerned about who is going to be kicked off "american idol" as opposed to who in county government does what. But they do care about how to get services and that's what this helps us with. What steps do you need to take to get married. What steps do you need to get a passport. They can find that out at home looking on the internet, they would show up at the court, the people at the counter have a lot fewer questions to answer. I think there's a true benefit to everyone for an understanding of county government and how to get services.
>> so will each of these videos say produced by Travis County?
>> yes, ma'am.
>> so we get good will.
>> that too.
>> all in favor? That passes by unanimous vote.
>> thank you all.
>> thanks for coming by.
The Closed Caption log for this Commissioners Court agenda item is provided by Travis County Internet Services. Since this file is derived from the Closed Captions created during live cablecasts, there are occasional spelling and grammatical errors. This Closed Caption log is not an official record the Commissioners Court Meeting and cannot be relied on for official purposes. For official records please contact the County Clerk at (512) 854-4722.
Last Modified:
Tuesday, November 18, 2008 1:38 PM